Shannon Rowbury's Balancing Act

Moments before the 1500-meter final at the 2010 USA Track and Field Championships, Shannon Rowbury can’t manage her nerves.

She squirms and wrings her hands and looks at Drake University’s famous blue track, which is baking under oppressive sunlight and humidity; she knows the race will be slow and tactical as a result of the heat, and she’s nervous about the frantic kick that will surely come near the finish.

“I have a headache,” she says seriously.

But Shannon Rowbury isn’t even running this race.

She’s watching from high in the stands, as her teammates, Leonel Manzano and David Torrence, prepare to race the men’s final in the metric mile. Rowbury’s 1500-meter race was the day before, and she fared well, finishing third. Yet for someone who earned a bronze medal at last year’s world championships at the same distance, anything less than a win was bound to be a letdown.

“Had you told me before the race I’d close that fast,” Rowbury says of her 60-second-split for her last 400m, “I would have said, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good.’” Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to catch then-leader Erin Donohue, and Anna Pierce closed even faster to pass both women. “To come in third,” Rowbury says, “is kind of disappointing.”

A day later, the finish still stings. It’s somewhat odd, then, that she’s so intensely focused on someone else’s impending run.

But this is who Shannon Rowbury is. She cares about her own running deeply, enough that finishing third at a national championships is unsatisfying, yet she does not let the disappointment she feels about her own race interfere at all with supporting her friends. Nearly every person who talks about Rowbury mentions her character first, her running second. And that character may be a key reason she has risen to the top of American distance running.

When the gun for the men’s race goes off, Rowbury calms. She watches intently, and each time the runners pass, she yells encouragement to Manzano and Torrence, despite the fact that there is no chance they can hear her over the noise of the crowd. Both run solidly in a race that’s even more tactical than anticipated. Manzano is second to a fast-finishing Lopez Lomong, while Torrence is fourth. Rowbury exhales deeply. “That was crazy. I was so stressed out!” she says. Then she watches the men’s 110-meter hurdles final before happily bounding off to talk with what seems like a small army of fans and friends at the meet.

Shannon Rowbury grew up in San Francisco, where she lives today. She left to attend Duke University, where she was a standout for the Blue Devils, winning an NCAA indoor title in the mile and helping her team to a third-place finish in cross country. But her running improved dramatically after college, when she won the 2008 Olympic Trials in the 1500m; made the final in Beijing, where she finished seventh; and followed that up with the aforementioned third at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.

She started 2010 where she left off in 2009, running a personal best in the 5,000m in 15:00.51 at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford and beating U.S. record-holder Shalane Flanagan and 2008 Olympian Amy Yoder-Begely. She has run several 1500s near her lifetime best already this season, but perhaps most impressively, she ran 8:31.38 over 3,000m at the Herculis Diamond League meeting in Monaco. The time demolishes her previous best, improving on an 8:47.18 she ran indoors earlier this year, and makes her the second-fastest American woman of all time at the distance.

Rowbury’s improvement, many close to her believe, was a result of the approach she takes to her life and, by extension, to her training.

She’s the kind of person who makes time to cook and spend time with her grandmother, says longtime friend Michelle Gallagher. “She’s so great at running, but she’s so down to earth.”

Others close to Rowbury say she has an uncanny ability to focus on running while she’s training, but fully focus on her friends and family when she’s not. When she’s not away racing, for example, she frequently visits her old high school to catch up with the current batch of runners.

“Some of the kids on the team have gotten to know her well enough that it’s not even that big a deal when she comes,” says Andy Chan, the head coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rowbury’s alma mater. “It’s not a big autograph session. It’s more, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’”

Her college boyfriend, Jonathan Amt, thinks it’s precisely this disposition that allows her to succeed.

“She’s better when she’s balanced,” he says. “She’s better when she’s doing stuff with her friends, when she’s going out to eat, when she’s enjoying herself. And I think she knows that.”

But, he adds, when it comes to her training, Rowbury’s focus is unparalleled.

“Her attention to detail is beyond anyone I know—in running or anywhere.”

Days after the U.S. championships, Rowbury’s back home preparing for a four-mile tempo run around Lake Merced. In typical San Francisco fashion, the summer air is foggy and cool. After a two-mile warm-up, Rowbury strips her sweats and jogs to the start of the four-mile loop. The stares of walkers and joggers follow her as she does her strides. She is clad in a bright pink tank top that reveals a hint of her stomach, tight black racing shorts and arm sleeves to ward off the slight chill. “It looks like I can’t afford a whole piece of clothing,” she laughs as she pulls on the sleeves, which leave her shoulders uncovered. The focus others speak of seems far away as she chats casually with Al Berrin, a local high school coach who has agreed to supervise her workouts in the Bay Area since Rowbury’s coach, John Cook, lives in Florida.

Through the first mile, Rowbury is light on her feet and talkative, joking and weaving between the walkers. She clicks off the first mile under control, according to plan. She picks up the pace for the second mile and goes faster still for the third but looks well within herself. It’s not until the three-mile mark that her serious side becomes visible. She quiets and looks ahead, takes a few quick steps, and begins to stride in earnest, leaving no doubt that her last mile will be her fastest—that her best has yet to come.

Paul Coover is a high school physical education teacher and head track and cross country coach in Oakland, CA. He is also RT.com's new weekly racing recap writer.

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